Picture Lovers, Here is Rome’s Choice of Photography Exhibits for the Start of 2012

If you want to liven up the usual monument-church-museum routine, here are some tips to have a visually different experience in off the beaten track venues.

The most important exhibit is probably the one at Palazzo Incontro by Henri Cartier-Bresson. Until May 6, Tuesday-to-Sunday 10am-7pm. The show features 44 balck and white images by the French master with comments by Cioran, Steingberg, Kundera, Jarmusch, Baricco, Balthus, Sciascia and many others that will help to understand the influence of Cartier-Bresson’s on contemporary culture.

France played a major role in the life of the Slovenian-born but French by adoption Evgen Bavcar, a blind photographer whose pictures are on show in the Museo di Roma in Trastevere. Darkness is a space shows us things we couldn’t otherwise see. It runs through March 25.

A very peculiar photo exhibit will start tomorrow and run through February 6 at Biblioteca Vallicelliana, not far from Piazza Navona and Campo de’ Fiori. “L’Italia la racconto anch’io” is a collective exposition of private photos taken by Romans in the last few decades to tell from an intimate point of view the daily life of Italians. Free, Monday-to-Saturday 10am 1pm.

Also very intimate is the photo display at Rome’s Zoo. Images of families at the (Rome) Zoo will run until March 11 and will be open on Saturdays and Sundays. The pictures will span from 1911, when the Zoo was inaugurated, to 1989.

A psychological and introspective photo showing is taking place at Museo Carlo Bilotti. It’s Stillwaiting by Stefano Cioffi. The topic of this exhibit is suspension, indefinite time, slow pace. Until March 8.

Made in Italy is a free collective display of Italian photographers, featuring also Niki Barbati, who show the real Italy in their images. In via Ostilia 41, at Vista Arte e Comunicazione, until February 10, Tuesday to Saturday.

Another free exhibit is in Piazza Navona at the Spanish Language Institute exposition center. It is by the Italian pioneer female photographer Tina Modotti. On display images shot in Mexico between 1923 and 1927. Until March 11.

Diocleziano’s Baths host the photoexhibit by Enrico Rondoni on how China has changed in the last 30 years. The Italian photographer displays his pictures of the early 80s and compares them with the new images shot in 2011. Until February 26. (If you’re interested in Asian/Silk Road happenings in Rome, read this)

Steve McCurry‘s exhibit is probably the most advertised and marketed photo show of the last few years in Rome. A huge display of photos from all over the world taken by one of the most renamed living photographers. Maybe because of the incredible crowd of the first opening week-end we couldn’t really enjoy it, though. It is difficult to find a red line among the hundreds of images on display and the photo captions are hard to find and say very little about the images. Until April 29.

You can find other Rome photography updates and trends in this article.